KJZZ’s Friday NewsCap revisits some of the biggest stories of the week from Arizona and beyond.
Lorna Romero Ferguson of Elevate Strategies and former congressional staffer Roy Herrera joined The Show to talk about an ethics complaint filed in the Arizona Senate, a vote of support for the state Republican Party Chair and more.
Conversation highlights
MARK BRODIE: Lorna, let me start with you. State Sen. Jake Hoffman (R-Queen Creek), chair of the Arizona Freedom Caucus, has filed an ethics complaint in the Senate against his colleague, Democratic Sen. Analise Ortiz (Phoenix).
This goes back to the issue where the allegation is doxing, where Sen. Ortiz reposted some information on her social media about ICE activity at a school in her community. Hoffman is asking for expulsion or other significant disciplinary action. What do you think comes out of this?
LORNA ROMERO FERGUSON: Well, I think this is just a broader issue of how heated this immigration debate has become and President [Donald] Trump really taking action when it comes to deportations, right? We’ve seen this outside of Arizona when it comes to protests and people trying to actually physically stop ICE from deporting individuals, whether those are individuals who are presenting themselves for a court hearing or whether they’re at work, etc.
And so obviously, this situation in Arizona hits a little bit closer to home, but it does present a larger issue of doxing and when it comes to law enforcement, putting individuals at risk. And so does it rise to the level of an ethical complaint or breaking the law? I know this has been referred to federal judges and whatnot. I’m not an attorney. I have no idea.
But there is a question of what is ethically correct for a current elected official to be doing when you’re potentially putting law enforcement at risk. And so that’s posing the question. Is there also politics involved? Of course. This is a huge political issue for Republicans and Democrats leading up to the 2026 election, but this is going to be an ongoing issue as long as President Trump’s administration is having such a strong immigration enforcement action.
BRODIE: Well so, Roy, you are the attorney in the room. Is this doxing?
ROY HERRERA: It is not doxing. I mean, doxing would be a situation where you’d be providing to the public or sharing to the public personal information like somebody’s address, like residential address or phone number or something like that. And obviously there’s a concern about doxing because I think most people I would like to believe, all people would believe that we don’t want to have our law enforcement officers be harassed.
That being said, we do have a First Amendment under the U.S. Constitution, and it is very clear that Sen. Ortiz’s actions here are protected by the First Amendment. And just because you may not like it, you may agree with her, may disagree with her, but it’s still protected by the First Amendment nonetheless. This is akin to sharing where a speed trap might be on a highway or something like that.
BRODIE: Which is an analogy that she has made.
HERRERA: Exactly. And I think it’s accurate. At the end of the day, I find this ethics complaint and referral to the U.S. attorney all to be a waste of time. And ultimately, it is all about politics. And, you know, we have the Freedom Caucus and Hoffman trying to score political points on this immigration issue.
But I ultimately don’t think it’s going to be successful, not only because, again, there’s no grounds, there’s no illegality there, but also because I do think most people in the public do believe that there should be public scrutiny and accountability when it comes to ICE’s immigration enforcement actions, that that is how we are as a country. We believe in that.
BRODIE: Is there a difference, though, at least in this case, between legal versus illegal and whether or not it rises to violate or Senate rules, which is essentially what an ethics complaint is alleging? There doesn’t have to necessarily be illegal activity.
HERRERA: That’s right. So that’s obviously not a civil investigation or criminal investigation. This is something that would be handled within the Legislature. Now I think an expulsion, which would need a supermajority, it’s just not going to happen.
BRODIE: And (Hoffman has) kind of acknowledged that he probably doesn’t have the votes for that.
HERRERA: Exactly. So if there’s some lesser discipline, is that possible? I assume it might be possible. I think, again, it would be unfortunate because Sen. Ortiz’s actions are protected by the First Amendment. She should have the ability to do these things. But again, it becomes a political question, ultimately, with the Republicans in the Legislature.
BRODIE: Well, so Lorna, how do you see the politics of this issue? Because, as you say, obviously this is a big issue for both Republicans and Democrats. And it seems like in this case, you have each side kind of doing what it is that their party does.
Hoffman is out there saying ICE should be able to do whatever it wants to do without any kind of interference or anything like that. And Ortiz is saying, “I’m there to protect my constituents. And I was reporting on something or telling people about something that anybody walking or driving by could see.”
Does somebody come out on top on this, do you think?
ROMERO FERGUSON: I think each side will claim that they’re the victor, depending on whatever happens in the Ethics Committee. It’ll be really interesting to see how this Ethics Committee investigation in the hearings move forward and how Sen. Ortiz handles herself, and Sen. Hoffman, and I know it’s Sen. (Shawnna) Bolick (R-Phoenix) who’s the chairman of the Ethics Committee, how they wish to proceed.
I mean, we’ve seen ethics committee investigations before where they turn into a circus, or there’s an agreement reached beforehand, etc. But I think either side is going to claim victory on this because, as Roy mentioned, it’s not cut and dry, right? When it comes to whether someone was doxing or if this is a First Amendment issue.
And all it’s going to do, in all honesty, is just kind of suck-up the interim at this point. And then we’ll go into session, and there will be a new topic that everyone’s going to deal with going into 2026. So I don’t think at the end of the day it’s going to play a huge issue going into the 2026 election. I just think it’s something for folks to be talking about at the current moment.
BRODIE: But Roy, it’s an interesting point Lorna makes that assuming the investigation happens and whatever the ethics committee is going to do happens before the next legislative session. Kind of a quiet time for politics for the state Legislature. Does that maybe amp up the attention on this case more so than if it were to take place, say, in January or February of next year when the Legislature is in session?
HERRERA: It could, because it is a quiet time. And to Lorna’s point, as she said a moment ago, immigration is obviously a hot topic. I think both sides believe a there’s a way — and I’m only talking about the politics here — that there’s a way to sort of take advantage of that. I think Democrats would say some of the actions that ICE has taken, for example, by standing outside of courthouses when people are trying to comply with their court orders, detaining them there or going into schools or going into churches to detain people are not things that most Arizonans, most Americans want to see.
And so the more that that happens, the more that’s going to be pointed out by Democrats. And of course, Republicans, particularly the Jake Hoffman types, are going to see it in a different way and want to continue to press this. And so it wouldn’t surprise me. We’re going to continue to have this immigration debate throughout this quiet period, but then also even next year in an election year.
BRODIE: Yeah, I was going to say it would be kind of surprising not to hear about immigration in an election year at all, right?
HERRERA: Yeah. We already see that’s going to be part of the playbook on the Republican side, judging this by their actions related to this ethics referral.
ROMERO FERGUSON: Well, in Arizona, immigration is always a top three issue, regardless of what cycle you’re looking at. And so yes, immigration and border security. And I think Republicans are going to be able to point to some significant wins under the Trump administration. And being able to point to how they were deported, criminal, illegal immigrants and whatnot.
And Democrats are obviously going to talk about them going too far and criminalizing innocent individuals, etc. I just don’t think the specific ethics complaint is going to be on mail pieces or being talked about next year. The larger issue, of course, will. And I do think that Republicans are going to stand strong when it comes to the support of law enforcement, making sure that elected officials of either party aren’t doing anything that’s going to put law enforcement at risk.
